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Friday, April 07, 2006

Dan Brown wins da Vinci case

Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, has successfully defended himself in the English courts against the charge of plagiarism. (Actually it was his publisher who was being sued, but you get the idea. And he did have to go into the witness box.)

Well, as the children say in English playgrounds, Told you. I told you the claimants would lose, and that Dan Brown would emerge smiling broadly.

To be precise, Told you on 1 March 2006, when the case started. And in any case, I had already Told you on 24 September 2004, which is 18 months ago.

It is also now clear (as predicted here on 1 March 2006), that the only smart guy in this whole silly mess is Henry Lincoln, third author in the Baigent/Leigh/Lincoln team, who declined to join his two colleagues in going to court in the first place. Baigent and Leigh now have to pay 85% of Random House's costs of almost £1.3 million. That's over half a million each. They have been refused right of appeal, and have to cough up £350,000 by 5 May.

Leigh says he feels vindicated. But it's an expensive way to buy a nice warm feeling, even if it's true.

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